Command line registry edit

Question

I seem to have a problem with a reg command that I'm trying to add by cmd. Any ideas how I can fix this syntax error, since the command dosent seem wrong...

reg add HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command /v command /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ /dde /p "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

I need to edit the command string and add the data:

xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ /dde /p "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

Answer 1

Any ideas how I can fix this syntax error?

Your (binary?) string contains a > character (which is used to redirect the output from a command to a file).

You have:

REG_MULTI_SZ /d xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ 

Try using ":

REG_MULTI_SZ /d "xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ"

Or escaping the > with ^>:

REG_MULTI_SZ /d xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles^>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ 

In addition your reg add ... command does not look correct.

You don't have an array of null-teminated strings that are terminated by two null characters.

Here is the correct syntax.

REG ADD [ROOT]RegKey /v ValueName [/t DataType] [/S Separator] [/d Data] [/f]

where:

/S Separator : Character to use as the separator in REG_MULTI_SZ values the default is "\0"

REG_MULTI_SZ Array of null-terminated strings that are terminated by two null characters.

Source REG.exe:

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8853911/reg-add-a-reg-multi-sz-multi-line-registry-value for more information

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Syntax : Escape Characters, Delimiters and Quotes

Escape Character

^ Escape character.

Adding the escape character before a command symbol allows it to be treated as ordinary text.

When piping or redirecting any of these charcters you should prefix with the escape character: & \ < > ^ |

 e.g.  ^\  ^&  ^|  ^>  ^<  ^^

Source Syntax : Escape Characters, Delimiters and Quotes

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Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line - An excellent reference for all things Windows cmd line related.
• redirection - Redirection operators.
• reg - Read, Set or Delete registry keys and values, save and restore from a .REG file.

Answer 2

DavidPostil is right in that you have to enclose the entire data string in double quotes, and then escape and double quotes inside the string to ensure it knows they are part of the string.

In this case the entire data string you want to add is:

xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ /dde /p "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"

So you want to wrap that entire string in double-quotes so that the command-line recognizes it as a single string (and not multiple arguments).

The trick is figuring out which quotes (and other characters) inside those delimiting quotes need to be escaped, and then figure out how to escape them for this context.

It took a little trial and error to figure it out, but for this case you only need to worry about the internal double-quotes, and you escape them by preceding them with a backslash (\):

reg add "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command" /v command /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d "xb'BV5!!!!!!!!!MKKSkEXCELFiles>VijqBof(Y8'w!FId1gLQ /dde /p \"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE\" /e \"%1\""

Having said all that, and based on the problems that seem to be continuing with nailing it down exactly, I think Ramhound might have mentioned the best/easiest solution in his comment.

Just go to a machine with the settings set as you'd like, then export that key to a .reg file.

Then use reg import in your batch file to import that .reg file.

If you don't like using/distributing two files, and/or you don't have a central place you could put it on the network, then you could always have the batch file create the .reg file on the fly by echoing the lines out to a temporary text file, import it and then delete the temp file once done.